Research Methods

11/10/2005

As a summary document it seems like it would be very useful to any researcher starting out, although it is understandably strongly targeted towards AI researchers. I found there were many points that I either found familiar or had worked through already (especially 3.1 and 4.1), however, so the following are the major points that I thought were worth noting in my case:
* After looking it up, at Sussex the definition for award of a DPhil is that, 'for the award of the Doctor of Philosophy, that the thesis makes a substantial original contribution to knowledge or understanding.'
* 3.10 (Methodology Does Not Make A Thesis) / 3.11 (The Discovery Route is Not Justification): These are both points that I need to consider and address this term and I feel that my essay for the Research Methods Course should help me with this.
* 4.4 (Early Morning - Cold Start): I should make sure I set a formal work schedule to give fair time to both my research and my work, preferably making sure that the first task of the day is simple and not something I will find other tasks to avoid.
* 7 (Writing Papers): This section suggested I should make lots of notes and make writing a part of my life. Hopefully I will achieve this with this site...
* 9 (Guide to Reading): I need to re-evaluate my reading and try to keep up-to-date with it. It may be worthwhile for me to make a list of relevant Conferences and Journals here at some point as well as re-subscribing to an abstracts database.

The Hertfordshire Generic Training Research Seminar series handbook is available here as a pdf. It includes the Joint Postgraduate Councils skills requirements and a break down of how this applies to the courses on offer. As staff I can attend any of these sessions.